SUPPORT The Indians and Hindus in Malaysia
See article below for more information on HINDRAF rally on Sunday November 25, 2007
The Malaysian government will be held responsible for any violence against the Hindus and Indians at their peaceful rally.
We are watching, the world is watching.
Why I will walk this Sunday
Posted on November 24th, 2007 by nat
It’s not because I really like rallies.
I find them too hot or too wet, hell to get to, and liable to get me arrested.
Been there, done that, wasn’t fun at all.
I’ve been reading a lot about the spectrum of responses towards Hindraf, and it’s been really engaging.
I’ve searched my soul, and I now know what I must do.
I now know that if I don’t stand with my brothers and sisters on Sunday, I will never stand with them.
Why are they marching?
Let’s start by examining Bersih.
How many actually came because they felt strongly about ink and postal votes?
How many came because they’re pissed off as all hell about our country going to shit?
Now let’s look at Hindraf.
How many of us have any idea what it’s like to be a poor Indian in Malaysia?
I remember the Ijok campaign, and our walkabouts in the Indian tapper villagers.
I’ve been to Sierra Leone, and what I saw in Ijok wasn’t much better.
When you’re small, you become a punching bag. It’s just about as simple as that.
Are the Indians all a bunch of victimised saints? Not any more than the Chinese, Malays or any other group are.
But they have it worst around here. There’s little doubt in my mind around that.
They’ve been pushed around, kicked, insulted, made fun of and neglected.
Remember Khairy’s remark about newspaper vendors and the PM’s speech?
What that really symbolises is that in Malaysia, you can kick an Indian and get away with it.
And now they have said “Ya basta!” – Enough!
The community will no longer take this abuse lying down.
Why Hindraf?
Many have expressed their ill ease with a Hindu-centric movement whose approach borders on racism.
I am sympathetic to this objection. I rather doubt that all the sentiments expressed throughout shockingly well attended Hindraf rallies throughout the country espoused the ultra-sensitive and nuanced views that would appease those like me.
No, it probably went more something like: “They (by which I basically mean the Malays) are bitchslapping us, and it’s time we fought back!”
I agree, that’s really not the best way to move forward.
Still, it seems to be the only way things are moving at all.
The popularity of Hindraf clearly points to one thing: a lack of credible Indian leadership that is truly voicing the feelings of the community.
If you have doubts about this, check out any of their rallies.
That MIC has failed and betrayed the Indians hardly bothers exposition.
I will be perfectly honest. Hindraf shows that the opposition has probably failed the Indians as well.
DAP has made some inroads, but they know which side their bread is buttered. KeADILan and Pas seem to have their hands full in their efforts to swing the decisive Malay middle ground – without which quite honestly, all other efforts are futile.
I’m not making excuses. We should be doing more, and we aren’t. Electoral reality has simply put Indians off the map of most.
So, when a group of people wearing a civil society hat step up and really articulate a community’s plight just by speaking from their hearts, that community responds in astounding strength.
Unlike the Chinese, the Indians have so much less to lose.
Something I read and saw the truth of when I attended the solidarity gathering for arrested Hindraf rulers: “The Indians are losing their fear.” (See Malaysiakini)
All they needed was for someone to lead them where they’ve long wanted to go. Since no one else dared or bothered, Hindraf filled the vacuum.
Race: Politics and Principles
Haris Ibrahim’s intelligence is outweighed only by his warmth, which is eminently more important.
He is not attending on Sunday for moral reasons, objecting to the racialist approach taken by Hindraf.
Anwar Ibrahim as well has given qualified support to the rally, feeling that some of the demands and articulations expressed by the group are too extreme, albeit well founded in terms of being based on real exploitation and marginalisation of the community.
Again, I can also agree that yes some temples are built illegally, and yes, like any other community, racism rears its ugly head among the Indians often enough.
Are these reasons for us not to go?
I thought a fair bit about this (while turning over in my head the threat of seeing the inside of the lockup again).
My conclusion is this: If we were to wait for another mass rally that will take a more mature, universalistic approach to race relations while actually having an impact in calling attention to the horrific living conditions facing Indian Malaysians today, we will wait forever.
I expect attendance well in the five figures.
Let’s be honest, no other group is going to pull those numbers in defence of minority rights in Malaysia.
If we don’t stand with them now, we will never stand with them.
We may not agree now, but if we don’t come out when it matters the most, we will never get a chance to dialogue.
We will never get a chance to speak from a position of credibility about the need to unite, and to look beyond parochial interests.
It has been said that the Hindraf approach opens the door for BN to introduce their hoodlums and engineer violence on the scale of May 13, thus plunging the opposition and civil society back some twenty years.
Well, that will certainly be easier to do if there are no Chinese or (especially) Malays standing with the Indians that day.
And the march is not going to be called off; it would be idiotic to suppose so.
So, are we going to walk the talk about multiracialism?
Are we who like to quote Voltaire’s “I may disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it” actually going to do anything to defend the right to assemble?
Or are we going to criticise the cops from the comforts of our homes and leave our Indian brothers and sisters to feel just how hard a baton or pipe feels when it comes crashing down on your skull?
When the newspapers print stories of massive racial violence, will the people say “Bullshit – Malays and Chinese stood with the Indians that day.” Or will they say “Shit, BN was right all along: without them, racial violence will run rampant”?
A Petition to the Queen of England?
Might make you feel a bit stupid, yes. Some felt stupid enough presenting a memorandum to the DYMM SPB Agong, much less some foreign liege who incidentally used to ‘rule’ over us.
The strategy and approach has been lampooned, and probably rightfully so.
Do we expect the Queen to say jolly good, and the suit to actually win trillions of ringgit? Don’t make me laugh.
But again, is this really why the Indians are taking to the British High Commission? Because they believe it will win them British citizenship? To think that would be equally laughable.
(Well perhaps not entirely. Once in a blue moon, I think I would take to the streets for British citizenship, haha 
It would be just as silly to assume that everyone who attended Bersih truly understood the pressing need for electoral reforms, or the complicated process in which BN blatantly cheats its way to victory in the polls.
Quite frankly, to me and to thousands of Indians on the march, that’s not what it’s about.
It’s about greater equality among the races, and about making every Malaysian feel at home in Malaysia.
It’s also about refusing to be raped any more.
The Walk: Ends and Means
I have never believed that one justifies the other. There are lines that just cannot be crossed.
Nonetheless, if there is anything I’ve learnt in my line of work, it’s just how hard it is to dislodge BN.
I object to their every fibre of their being with every fibre of mine, but I’m no fool who underestimates their strength, nor the magnitude of our task ahead.
In my line of work as well, I have witnessed petty squabbles of every imaginable sort.
Needless to say, these are not unique to my field, but exist instead in every human endeavour. This fact does not make them any less unbearable however.
We have seen many who refuse to subscribe to a greater centrist unity due to unflinching belief in certain principles, or in worse cases, an inability to get along on a personal level.
Examples include Ezam & Gerak, Nallakarupan & MIUP, Wee Choo Keong & the MDP, PSM and so on.
I honestly bear none of these people ill will; they certainly have not directed any to me.
I have seen though, division upon division. I’m sympathetic to some reasons for those divisions, as I feel many of the same frustrations those dissenters have felt.
But people are nitpicking over politics, over principles, over pride and over personalities. To me, the only thing that dominates the big picture is disunity.
The question remains: how much do we really want what we want?
If, like me, you truly believe that BN is the root of all rot, how much are you willing to sacrifice to see that their injustices are forever stopped?
Myself, I’m at least willing to go as far as walking on Sunday.
I don’t believe that an Indian-centric approach alone will solve the problems of the Indians, but I do believe that they have been screwed over like few others have ever been screwed over.
I don’t believe in sacrificing a more embracing conceptualisation (“Malaysian rights”) for an increasingly narrow one (“Hindu Rights”), but I do believe that some – if not all – of the grouses are perfectly well founded.
I don’t know exactly what levels of violence if any will be perpetrated on Sunday and by whom, but I do know that if there is any attempt to paint any violence as racial, that at least one Malaysian will be there to do his best to confound the unholy efforts of the spin doctors and bear witness to the truth.
I don’t know whether my walk on Sunday will end at the British High Commission, blocked at some LRT station, or back at the Dang Wangi lockup, but I do know it will begin in the spirit of unity and solidarity.
See you there, I hope.
2 Comments
November 24, 2007 at 3:41 pm
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December 9, 2007 at 5:11 pm
If sciologists were to evaluate the Barisan controlled-media’s turnspeak on Hidraf, it would be entitled “the lust to demonize.” It is almost impossible to conduct a meaningful dialogue with a media bound by a Printing Act leash around its neck. I am reminded of the statesman Dr Tan Chee khoon, he was one of the few who had the capacity to speak for the downtroden without fear or favor, and that was in an era where the media was not emasculated. Umno putras and their agents have conveniently camoflouged the whole March and dissent as an incidious racial issue, a volatile attempt to stir unrest in the country. It is a winding road often travelled, yet Malaysians are not as gullible as the establishment envisions it to be.
As you have rightly pointed out the Indians have been crushed for decades. The tarred roads they laboured over have almost become a reflection of their marginalisation, while others have long passed that road to acheive their dreams. For decades the community, their children and peoples continue to face the same cycle of poverty, discrimination and disenfranchisement.
The Indians have often stood with others in the cause of fighting against injustices, often to the point of losing the little fincances they have. They have often walked championing the cause of emancipation for other minorities while they lost their own priveleges, often at the expsense of their own lives. Invariably, when Indians stand up for their own plight, they stand alone.This predicament after five decades of oppression will not get them any standing ovation, other than continued “Police prison lock up mystery deaths” and a stoic establishment silence and refusal to prosecute those who perpetrated brutal killings of their families in slums such as Kampong Medan.
Selective journalism has been with us long before the oldest profession. And it does exhibit its “assets” for maximum appeal. It amuses me to varying degrees of hilarity and sorrow as to how far some would go to legitamize their prejudice and religous bigotry against Indians. Feeding off the crumbs of Umno Printing Press Act table can have an adverse effect on institutionalised loyalty and allegiance. Rice bowl journalism however does create a dependence that is hard to disenggage.
It is interesting to observe that none of the goverment-controlled media has dared to break ranks from the establishment leash to feature an independent non-biased interviewwith Uthayakumar. His view or version of the Hindraf march has instead been portrayed as one that is seditious and militant. The issue of multiple deaths of Indians in prison or the Kampong Medan killings has been deliberately concealed.
I have yet to see Rocky or any of the BN concubine media take Umno Youth keris waving jihadists to task for inciting racial or religous sentiment. The simple fact is that threats of ethnic cleansing by keris waving politician according to these media concubines are to be condoned, the less influential minorities with little economic clout must be coerced to apologize for using their voices, in other words, the marginalised Malaysian Indians is only qualified to be the nation’s top candidate reseverved for the heaviest possible crush.
After all, are not the marginalised Malaysian Indians and other minorities not to smile and politely nod and sing praises to the goverment’s ketuanan Melayu concept? We are being constantly lectured about the “intrinsic value” of ketuanan Melayu to the point any protest may result a quick confrontation from the boys at Kamunting. Perhaps it is a silencing we will ulitmately get used to? Umno Youth hopes is passionately convinced we will.
The legitimate issues brought up by Hindraf should not be eclipsed by selective journalism, nor Umno jihadist propaganda. As Malaysians witnessed, none of the goverment-controlled media dared to state how the Police and FRU bulldozed the Batu Caves temple and shot chemical-laced water jets and tear gas into captive crowds. After all, as far as the goverment-controlled media is concerned, the BBC and other foreign media are all united against Umno putras and on a conspisary to “fabricate” news of what happened on the Sunday March. How dare any institution challenge the almighty Barisan controlled-media!
The local Press went on a rampage to feature a tirade of fabricated “scoops” like the allegation that Hindraf members allegedly attacked an Indian restaurant in Brickfields(Paandi). Even in their retraction (when the restaurant owner himself exposed the blatant lies), the Star failed to print a retraction. Sri Paandi Restaurant boss Mr Thomas and Mr Kumar denies making any allegation against Hindraf or to indicate that they were responsible for an attack by thugs at his restaurant. Nevertheless, Tv1, Tv2, Tv3 or NTV7, Bernama and The Malay Mail quoted that he did. Such media control and manuevering by the Umno-controlled goverment rivals any coup de tat.
In my opinion, Indians of various religous background and persuasions will stand with Hindraf for the following reasons:
Firstly, Hindraf has a legitimate right to speak out against the systematic ethnic cleansing of poor and marginalised Indians that has manifested over the past three decades. There is irrefutable evidence of this in the aspect of multiple deaths or “Police related lock-up deaths” and the involment of goverment in carrying out such dastardly attacks. Uthayakumar himself has documented death threats against him and the destruction to his car and property in retaliation to his determination to defend Indians from these injustices.
Secondly, Indians of other religous and ethnic persuasions have witnessed similar violations against them, the destruction of churches and property including the demolition of crosses and statues in Christian schools and Convents and to the Orang Asli in the interior has been carried out systematically. There is documented evidence of these and other violations and the goverment must demonstrate sincerity in its claim to openess to executing justice for these oppressed groups.
Thirdly, the current MIC leadership has failed to bring economic, social or cultural emancipation to the community. There needs to be a new impetus and reformation in seeking development and breakthrough for the community.
The continued propaganda and demonization of Hindraf is counterproductive and serves only to promote the narrow racist policies of Umno and its Barisan agents. It is pivotal that other communities stand with Hindraf in their struggle liberate the Indian community from its captive status. When one chooses to remains silent when a minority is being crushed, it may reap silence when if falls on them.